Wednesday, June 9, 2021

June 10, 2021 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Garlic Scapes!

 

Cooking With This Week's Box

Garlic Scapes:
Lemon Garlic Scape Compound Butter (See Below)
Roasted Garlic Scape Hummus (See Below)
Grilled Naan with Garlic Scape Chutney





Strawberry Rhubarb Popsicles
photo from rhubarbarians.com
Welcome back to this week’s Cooking With the Box!  Things are really heating up in the valley and that means vegetables are growing like crazy!  We’ll be harvesting zucchini next week, cucumbers will follow behind shortly, and before we know it we’ll be doing our 2021 garlic harvest!  Of course we’re also in the midst of strawberry season AND we’ll likely be picking the first peas next week!  Is anyone else excited for all the delicious vegetables yet to come?!

This week we’re featuring the crazy, curly garlic scape.  You can use these anywhere you need garlic flavor, but you can also make them the center of the recipe, such as in the Roasted Garlic Scape Hummus (See Below) recipe this week.  This recipe uses nearly an entire bunch of scapes which gives it a very dominant garlic flavor.  If you want something more subtle, you can cut the amount of scapes in half.  If you like the flavor of garlic, then make it full strength!  I’ve also included a recipe for Lemon Garlic Scape Compound Butter (See Below).  This is a super easy recipe to make and a way to spread the bright flavor of garlic scapes out over multiple meals.  For a quick meal, saute a piece of fresh fish and melt some of this butter on top.

Spicy Kale and Coconut Fried Rice
This is our last week for rhubarb, and we have one chance at the overlap with strawberries!  If you have a favorite recipe using both of these ingredients, this is the week to use it.  If not, consider making an Old Fashioned Rhubarb Custard Pie or Strawberry Rhubarb Popsicles for the kids!

The kale field looks gorgeous this week and we couldn’t resist sending a bunch of the curly, crispy green kale your way.  Use it to make this simple Spicy Kale and Coconut Fried Rice or enjoy it for breakfast in this Kale,Bacon and Egg Breakfast Sandwich.  If you’re not big into kale, use it to make Lemon Kale Muffins.  Trust me, they are delicious.

These are just a few of the recipe highlights we have for you this week, but hopefully you’ll find something within the list of suggested recipes that will spark your interest with this week’s box!  In the meantime, start pulling out those zucchini recipes.  It’s almost time to start our annual zucchini marathon!

Have a great week! --Chef Andrea


Vegetable Feature: Garlic Scapes

Description: Garlic scapes are a long, skinny, curly green vegetable that is actually a byproduct of growing hardneck garlic.  They grow up from the center of the plant and we harvest them in June, about a month ahead of our annual garlic harvest.

Preparation & Use: Nearly the entire scape is edible and is best when harvested while young and tender.  You may need to trim off the skinny end near the little bulb at the far end of the scape as this portion is often tough.  The remainder of the scape is usable and tender, so they do not need to be peeled.  Scapes have a bright, juicy, mild garlic flavor.  They may be used in any recipe that calls for garlic cloves, just chop them up and add them as you would minced garlic.  They can also be grilled or roasted, pickled, fermented, and make an awesome pesto!  They are a great addition to eggs, stir-fries, pizzas, etc.

Storage: Store scapes in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them.  They’ll store for 2-3 weeks.
Garlic Scapes growing in the field.

Cultural & Historical Background: Up until the early 90’s we used to remove scapes from the garlic plant and throw them on the ground!  We were the first farm in the Midwest to start harvesting the scapes for use as a vegetable, thanks to one of our customers from Korea who asked us to save the garlic scapes for her so she could make pickles.  We thought this was odd, but saved some for her anyway.  She was gracious enough to share a jar of pickled scapes with us and that was our introduction to how delicious they are to eat!

Growing Information: All of our varieties of garlic are a type called hardneck garlic.  This type of garlic produces scapes as part of nature’s plan for the plant to propagate itself in the soil.  If left unattended, the bulbil on the end of the scape would get bigger and would eventually be so heavy it would fall down and plant itself, thereby propagating a new plant!  We’re cultivating garlic, so we plant a clove of garlic from a full sized bulb and use that as a means of growing the plant.  Since we don’t need the scape to produce another crop, we go through the field and cut them off the plant so the plant can focus its energy into producing a nice sized bulb instead of a scape.

Roasted Garlic Scape Hummus

Yield:  1 ½ cups

6-7 garlic scapes
2 tsp plus 1 Tbsp olive oil
1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas (one-15 oz can)
¼ cup tahini
Grated zest of 1 organic lemon
2-4 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp raw honey or pure maple syrup
¾ tsp sea salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Additional olive oil, for serving*
Smoked paprika, for serving (optional)
  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Cut garlic scapes into 1 to 2 inch pieces.  You should have about 1 cup once they are cut.  Put garlic scapes in a bowl and toss with 2 tsp olive oil.  Spread them out on a baking sheet in a single layer and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.  Roast in the oven for 10 minutes, then stir.  Roast an additional 5-10 minutes or until the scapes are slightly blistered and just starting to turn brown.  
  2. Remove the roasted garlic scapes from the oven and cool slightly before putting them in a food processor.  Pulse to finely chop the garlic scapes.  Add the chickpeas, tahini, lemon zest and juice, honey or maple syrup, ¾ tsp salt, freshly ground black pepper, and 1 Tbsp olive oil.  Blend on highest setting until smooth.  You will likely need to add up to ¼ cup warm water to loosen up the mixture so it will blend to a smooth consistency.  Taste and add additional salt, lemon juice and black pepper to taste.
  3. Transfer the hummus to a serving bowl, drizzle olive oil over the top, and sprinkle a few pinches of smoked paprika if desired.  Serve.  Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days.
Recipe by Andrea Yoder

Lemon Garlic Compound Butter

Yield:  ½ cup butter

1 stick unsalted butter, softened  
3 garlic scapes
Zest from 1 lemon
Freshly ground black pepper
  1. Cut the garlic scapes into 1-inch pieces.  Add the pieces to the bowl of a food processor and chop until fine.  
  2. Add the softened butter and the lemon zest to the garlic scapes along with some freshly ground black pepper.
  3. Blend in the food processor until all ingredients are evenly combined.
Storage:
  • For immediate use, place the compound butter in a jar and store in the fridge for one to two weeks.
  • For longer storage, store the compound butter in the freezer.  To do so, roll it into logs by placing the compound butter on a piece of wax paper or parchment paper.  Roll it into a tight log and twist the ends.  You can do one large log or you can make two smaller ones.  Place the roll(s) of butter into a plastic zipper bag and store in the freezer for up to 2 to 3 months. Alternatively, you can put the butter into small jars or freezer containers and freeze it.
Suggested Uses:
  • Melt over grilled or sautéed chicken or fish.
  • Use it to sauté shrimp for scampi.
  • Use it in scrambled eggs.
  • Spread on toast, warm bread or biscuits.
  • Use it to butter cooked or roasted vegetables, such as baby turnips, new potatoes or zucchini.
Recipe adapted slightly from www.relishments.com

Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)